Fenella and Imogen's Irlen Journey

Twins, Fenella and Imogen, are no strangers to Irlen Syndrome. Their mom and two of their three older siblings also have Irlen, so when 5-year-old Fenella started mentioning words moved on the page, mom Emily knew it was time to get her young daughter tested. “Fenella is an articulate child, and as soon as she started school at age 5 she began telling me the words wriggled up and down on the page,” says Emily. “She would feel dizzy, tired, annoyed, her eyes were hurting a lot, and she would have an eye flick that came at the end of the day when she was tired. She would always tell me the sun hurt her eyes.” By 5 ½, Fenella was wearing her first set of Irlen Spectral Filters. Her bright blue lenses took away the pain, stopped the words from moving on the page, and resulted in improvements in her “reading, tracing, and writing, as well as her emotional state and behavior,” according to mom.

Fenella’s twin sister, Imogen, was 6 ½ when she finally got her Irlen Spectral Filters. Similar to her sister, Imogen saw words move on the page when trying to read, only for her, “a whole line would move up on top of the line she was reading and overlap, and the bright sun would hurt her eyes.” With her Irlen Spectral Filters, Imogen reads with more expression, and she writes and draws better. “She’s also more articulate when wearing her Spectral Filters,” says her mom.

Both girls were very lucky to have a mom who was so familiar with Irlen Syndrome and its symptoms. They were able to identify and address their Irlen Syndrome right at the beginning of their academic careers, and were able to avoid the years of academic struggle, physical pain, and self-esteem issues that so many others often have to face.